We used the Half Plan to cut our
total energy use, energy costs, and greenhouse gas emissions
in half (and then some).

We cut our energy use for electricity, space heating, water heating, and transportation from 95,000 KWH per year to 36,000 KWH
per -- this is saving us $4,800 per year in energy costs,
and has reduced our CO2 emissions by 18 tons.

The
links below show how we did this, and how you can
develop a set of projects to do the same -- or more.

Half Program Articles and Interviews

Mother Earth News

The February - March 2008 issue of Mother Earth News has an article on the Half
plan that features the 8 most cost effective energy saving projects. These
eight projects cost us $380 and save $910 a year plus more than 5 tons in
greenhouse gas savings.

Home Power Magazine

Home Power magazine carried a series of 3
articles on the Half Plan earlier this year.
The articles give good how-to detail on the projects we used and the costs
and savings associated with each project.

You can download the three article series from Home Power Magazine for free from the links belowThanks to Home Power from making these downloads
available!

Thermal Gain
What the Half Plan is about, and several projects that reduce heat loss.
Full how-to instructions and all of the energy savings, greenhouse gas
savings, cost savings, and cost to build.
Part I projects:
Energy Saving 7900 KWH/year
GHG Reduction 3500 lbs CO2
Cost
$1880
Cost Saving
$662 per year

Saving Electricity
More about the Half Plan, and the full how-to and details on several
projects that result in large electricity savings.
The the greenhouse gas threat of coal fired power plants.
Part II projects:
Energy Saving 5035 KWH/year
GHG Reduction 10050 lbs CO2
Cost
$1340
Cost Saving
$503 per year

Defeating Drafts and Improving
Insulation
More about the Half Plan, and full how-to on these projects:
Details on infiltration sealing, attic insulation, crawl space insulation
and sealing, sealing duct systems, and cheap window insulation.

The Half Plan at the Livingston Sustainability Fair

A Half Interview on the Green Options Website

Other Helpful Resources for Cutting Your Energy Use

The Carbon Buster's Home Energy Handbook

A good new book describing a program very similar to our "Half" program.

The Carbon Buster's Home Energy Handbook,
Godo Stoyke, 2007

This
is a brand new and good book on how to start your own energy saving program
that will cut your energy use and green house gas emissions by as much as
70% -- and save you $17,000 over 5 years.
The author lists many potential projects in all areas of energy use, and
provides cost, rate of return, energy saving and carbon saving for each.
It is done very much like my Half program listed above -- highly
recommended.
Available at the usual book places $13.

Our Total Energy use is down from 95,000 KWH per year
to 36,000 KWH/year

The chart shows total
energy use before and after the cumulative effect of doing
conservation, solar, and efficient transport projects.

$4,800 per year saving in energy costs.

The chart shows the cumulative savings in energy
bills for the same set of conservation, solar, and transport
projects.

18 tons per year CO2 emissions reduction.

The chart shows the cumulative savings in CO2
emissions for the same set of conservation, solar, and transport
projects.

UseHalf --
Conservation Without Compromise
Another site that promotes the idea that we can cut our our residential and
transportation energy use in half, and provides many convincing reasons why this
is a good thing to do.

Update at the start of 2009:

We have continued on the Half program through 2008, and completed a few more
projects, including this very cost effective
solar water heating system.

I have stopped entering new projects in this Half section because its quite a
bit of work to update all the charts and tables each time a new project is
completed, and the projects that are already listed get the picture across
pretty well.

Rest assured that all of the projects listed in this Half section are still
in use and still saving energy, money and CO2. In addition, the new
projects completed in 2008 make our total savings somewhat better than is listed
here.